…AND THEN BURN THEM AT MIDNIGHT….

Well I gotta lot to say so let's just jump right in shall we: 

New Year's Eve!!  So this is what New Years is like in Ecuador:  They all build these life- sized doll things that supposedly represent themselves, and then burn them at midnight, symbolizing burning away the old year. Out with the old and in with the new! It's kinda weird, but kinda cool. Everyone like sells them in the street too. It's like some creepy Halloween with just piles of dolls laying on the side of the road. They call the dolls año viejos. In fact, the ward burned one Monday night as an activity and we attended. It was pretty cool. They made me jump over it. haha. Also teenage boys dress up like women and dance in the street in front of traffic and collect money from every car window. It's pretty weird. It's supposed to represent a widow or something? no se. Anyways, we had to be in the house by 6 so we just relaxed.  I organzied some things, played some harmonicas, and ate cake with the other Hermanas. And then New Year's day was just like dead. Nobody was out and about. We also had to be in the house at 6 again so it was a pretty sleepy day for all.

Ward New Year's Party

We had 6 people in church this week!! Alexander came too!!! His family is still acting weird, and I don't wanna get my hopes up, but it looks like Alexander may still progress! We will have to see how it goes. 

The French speaking lady from Haiti came again with another Haitian woman. They don't understand anything but they are so cute! The bishop said he thinks there is someone in the stake who speaks French and he said he was gonna contact him for us. So hopefully this guy can help us teach these ladies! Another guy is a middle aged man whom the hermanas from another ward found, but because of some stuff I think we are gonna give him to the Elders to teach. But he's pretty cool and loves discussing the gospel. 

The last 2 were our two new investigators!!! They are a married couple named Eddy and Mayra. We met them in the street because Eddy started talking to us in English. Turns out he lived in Connecticut for 10ish years. His English isn't the greatest, but they are awesome!!! They invited us in after 10 seconds of meeting us and we taught them the restoration. They are soooo accepting. Turns out Eddy was baptized while in jail in the states while awaiting deportation. lolz. I know what you're thinking Dad. haha. 

Eddy already thinks the Catholic church is corrupt and he already has great faith and trust in the Lord and has good habits of praying and reading the scriptures. BUT he also had bad habits of drinking and smoking marijuana. Their history is pretty crazy so I'm probs rambling, but despite all of the challenges they have, they are just so awesome and have such a desire to learn! Eddy has already read all the introduction and testimonies in the front of the Book of Mormon and has gone on reading into 1 Nephi. He said that he already believes it's the word of God. So incredible! Now he just needs to quit the weed. But I had a really spiritual experience teaching them about the Word of Wisdom and was able to testify and promise through the spirit to Eddy that whenever he feels the temptation to smoke or drink, if he instead kneels to pray and asks Heavenly Father for help and strength, and then gets up and reads the Book of Mormon after his prayer, that God will take away his addiciton and he will be given the strength that he needs as long as he puts in this part. It was really awesome and the spirit was so incredibly strong. So pray for him that he will be able to overcome it! 

Well I think that's all I got for now. Still here in Monay with Hna Clark. On Wednesday an authority from the 70 is coming to talk to us, so that should be cool. It has been raining a lot here and it's getting a lot colder!! But I'm still loving Cuenca.  I hope I'm here to stay for a while longer. I had the opportunity to leave the sector today and picked you all up some nice souvenirs fam bam! Pretty sure I already spent all the money you wired over Mom. haha. I like never have the opportunity to buy things so I took advantage :)

Well, I love you all so much, and am so grateful for each and every single one of you in my life! Sharing the gospel brings such joy and I challenge all of you to participate in this joy and share the Gospel as well!! There are so many people who are lost and ignorant of this happiness and YOU have the knowledge to help them! Cool right? So go do it! Love you guys!

Craziness in Cuenca,

Hermana Harper

Oh ya we also ate chusos on New Year's Eve. chussssssoooooo. haha

We Hermanas, in by 6 pm, eating cake on New Year's Eve

Hermana Harper

WE LIKE FREAKED OUT WE WERE SO HAPPY......

Well Fam Bam, it's only been a few days since we have talked!!

Another cool view of the valle!!

I almost feel like it didn't happen, for real. It seems like it was a dream. But it was so good to see all of your lovely faces and hear all of your beautiful voices. Let's do it again soon ya? How about Mothers Day? Cool, sounds like a date :) hehe

So guess what?? Efrain was baptized!!! And man it almost didn't happen.....On Thursday night we were going over the baptismal interview questions with him before his interview and he was like hey, I think I'm gonna go visit my family tomorrow in Cañar until Wednesday cause I don't have work till then.....and we were like, you have got to be kidding me....We used all the pep talk skills we have when stuff like this happens.....telling him that when we are on the right path, Satan
puts things in the way so we don't follow through with the plan God has for us and how he could just wait to travel until after his confirmation on Sunday morning and still have plenty of time at home, etc etc. But during all that, he seemed pretty set on just waiting to get baptized until the next week.....we had pretty much given up and lost hope, sitting their in silence, on the verge of tears.....when he was suddenly like actually, ya, that's fine. I'll just travel Sunday after church.....we like freaked out we were so happy. haha. So the interview went well. On Saturday we had such a good member turnout to attend the baptism we almost didn't have enough dessert for everyone! We just had to cut really small pieces :) and Sunday morning he was confirmed and all is well!!! Efrain was such a tender mercy from the Lord for Hna clark and I as we have been working so so so hard opening this giant sector here in Monay and are so grateful we were able to see some fruits of our labors after all that happened. So far, no transfers have happened but we shall see how it goes throughout this week.....I honestly have no idea what to think.....if I'm gonna stay or go....but I hate the not knowing! anxiety. haha. Oh well.

So another cool story from this week.....on Saturday this black lady walks in to church (there aren't very many black people in Cuenca) and she's completely alone and no one knows her. So naturally we approach her and start talking to her. She doesn't really speak Spanish or English. And when we ask her what her language is she just says ¨no comprendo¨. We were like what the what??? She finally understands the word ¨pais¨ and we figured out she's from Haiti and speaks French!! What the What? So she stays at church all 3 hours even though she obviously understands close to nothing.....We walk her home after so we could find out where she lives and luckily her nephew who was there spoke Spanish!! He's been living here 2 years studying and when he came he knew no Spanish. He's also from Haiti and French is also his native language. Turns out there's like 5 people from Haiti there living with some Ecuadorian dude who is part of some foreign program or whatever, not quite sure. But it was just such the strangest experience....talking with people from Haiti in Ecuador....their native language being French, ours being English, yet communicating through Spanish, which is a second language for both of us. Talk about crazy!! So I guess this lady is here visiting her nephew for a few months and is Christian and wanted to go to church so the Ecuadorian guy was just like, hey there's one up the street and dropped her off at our capilla! So crazy.We have no idea how we are going to teach her since her nephew is barely home and he's the only one with translating capabilities. But i guess we shall find out!!

Well I'm about out of time but I love you guys so much and can't wait to hear about your New Year's next week!!! Can't believe 2013 is over, 2014 here we come!! Until next week.....

Con mucho Cariño en Cueca,

Hermana Harper

Replicating Dad' olds mission pic the best we could remember ;) hehe

The Cuenca Hermanas spending Christmas Eve together:  making and eating taco soup.

Christmas Eve Party in Cuenca

Christmas Morning

Traditional Christmas morning pic on the stairs.

Opening presents Christmas morning

Christmas Tree from The Smiths

I JUST BURST INTO TEARS AND COULD NOT STOP CRYING......

Buenas Familia, (12/23/13)

Well not gonna lie, this past week was a rough one. Not really sure what happened up until Friday but a LOT happened on Friday....To make a long story short, The ____ Family did a complete 360 turn on us. The mom went to the coast last Sunday and when she came back she was completely different. We didn't see her till Friday morning and she told us that they were all leaving again in the morning to go back to the coast but this time with everyone so we would have to change the baptism date....and then the elders said that they passed by there earlier that week and saw her peek her head out the window....which means she had been avoiding us and lying to us when she was really home the whole time. ____ went from being a little wishy washy to wanting almost nothing to do with us, avoiding us as well. However ____ was still stoked as ever and even went to Hermana Nydia's house with us to practice singing for the ward Christmas party. And then Friday afternoon, when we went to get him for the ward party, he was completely different as well. Wouldn't make eye contact with us, said he couldn't be baptized Saturday since they were gonna travel, and when we asked him if he would be baptized Jan 4th once they got back, he said I don't know, which means no. And then he didn't even go to the party even though all week he had been so excited to sing. And this whole time we have been teaching them, he has been so excited and so set, sure and firm about his baptism. We have no idea what happened but we are assuming that a family member must have said something to them to make them want to have nothing to do with us. 

I was hurt when ________ was acting the way she did because we had all grown so close and she has recognized and shared so many spiritual experiences with us. She always told us stories about since we started visiting them, she could see the changes in her home and the Lord's hand helping her and her family. She even went to a misioanry farewell with us and got all excited for her boys to serve one day. So that was hard. But what hurt the most, what seriously killed me inside, was seeing _____ act the way he did when before he was so 100% ready. It literally broke my heart to see him that way, avoiding eye contact and wanting us to go away. We were with the Elders because they were gonna try and help us see if we could do the baptisms that night before they traveled, but it became obvious the trip was just an excuse and who knows if they even left to the coast. The second we walked away from them I just burst into tears and could not stop crying for a solid 20 min no matter what kind words of comfort the elders tried using.  

I'm not gonna lie, I really like how now most wards have a set of elders and a set of sisters. They really help us a lot. So despite that big blow, we picked ourselves up and had 3 investigators in the ward activity that night. Efrain, the joven weve been teaching, and Luci and her daughter. She's really Catholic and doesn't want to go to church cause it's the same time as her church but she really likes it when we visit her and always wants us to come back, so hopefully after the holidays die down we can get her to church :) and Efrain is just progressing so rapidly, it's so awesome. We had to leave the party before it ended to be back in the house and usually when this happens the investigators leave with us, which is what Luci did. but Efrain was like no, I'm gonna stay! and later the members told ust that he was like one of the last people to leave hahaha. I guess he likes to dance, but he already has almost all of the lessons and 2 assistencias, so when we teach him tonight we are gonna see if he wants to be baptized on Saturday cause he's totally ready for it. I really hope. It would be so nice to for Hermana Clark and I to have a baptism together in December here in Monay, especially after what just happened....It's so incredibly sad, we just don't even like to think about it. It's a good thing we have Efrain to focus on otherwise we would probably be way too depressed for words with nobody to teach and our golden family fallen. But all is well, I know God has a plan for everyone and everything and I can only hope that one day in the future they will remember the spirit they felt and the truth they received and will go back to church and be baptized. 

So on anther note, we kinda finally had a late Thanksgiving!! for Christmas here almost everyone

eats turkey and it is literally the only time of year anyone ever eats turkey. So they had turkey at the ward party! But of course with rice, haha. Since we had to leave early we took it back to the apt to eat. So yummy. I'll send a pic. I will also be sending pics of us with Monica and Elder Infanzon. Monica left this week for her mission in Peru and Elder Infanzon finished his mission and went home to Peru, all within the same 2 days. haha They are two great people who I became good friends with in the mission and will miss them greatly here in Monay. But Elder Flores is still here being his hilarious self and his new comp has been pretty cool so far so all is well.

Chou to Elder Infanzon!!

Saying bye to Monica

Tomorrow night we are going to have a Hermana sleepover at the Hermana leaders' house! They got permission to do so, so the 8 of us are gonna have a giant Christmas party since we have to be home by 6 tomorrow anyways. We are gonna cook taco soup Christmas eve and make crepes Christmas morning!! We are also doing a secret Santa exchange so it should be fun. Well I can't believe I'm gonna be skyping with you guys in just 2 days!!! and that that day is Christmas!! So dang crazy. Well I love you all so much and will be talking with you shortly! I hope the annual Harper 23rd party will be rocking it tonight and that tomorrow night the normal Christmas Eve festivities and traditions will be carried out as well....cant wait to hear all about it and see all the pics! Lots of love being sent your way from Ecuador....

Lovin' Christmas in Cuenca,

Hermana Harper

Sunday dinner last week with the Familia Arguello. They are super awesome. We ate tacos. It was the best, and then after that...... 

.....we went to Hermana Elizabeth's house and made empanadas and took pictures with her pretty view from her front yard :)

HEAVENLY FATHER NEVER LEAVES US SOLO....

Buenas Tardes Familia Mia,

IT'S A MONDAY.....(points to whoever emails me with the reference to that quote.) Well here I find myself sitting in a cyber once more with my mind completely blank....let's see what come out shall we...

Well firstly, the Bravo boys did not get baptized on Saturday.  Miscommunications do tend to happen every once in a while when you got two gringa newbies teaching. But it's all good because now they will just be baptized this coming Saturday instead....which honestly we feel totally ok about because now their dad will be able to be there!!! He will be able to feel of the spirit and be a part of this really important and special day of their lives. And the truth is that Hna Clark and I had already been thinking about if we should wait for their dad. Heavenly Father has a plan and timing for everything. :)

Thursday the Christmas Choir tour came through Cuenca!! Had I told you about that? President set up this thing where a few weeks ago he pulled out like 8 musically talented people from their sectors and gathered them all in Guayaquil where they planned and practiced a Christmas program for a couple weeks and then toured all the zones of the mission!! The members were all invited and we all invited our investigators of course. Unfortunately the Bravo family couldn't make it cause they had a school thing that night, but the abuelita of a really active family here that we invited came! So that was cool. 

Before the program, President met with all of us and gave us gift bags with candy for Christmas. Also, all the people who have completed 12 semanas got a pin of the mission logo. I felt like I was in boy scouts as the hermana leader pinned it on me. haha. It was pretty cool though and it was good to see President and to talk with Sister Torres too. She is so funny; I love her. And then the program was just absolutely beautiful. There were only 3 gringa hermanas and 1 latino elder who sang, but also a latino elder on the flute and a gringa hermana on the violin, and a gringo elder on the piano. It was seriously so awesome; the spirit was so strong. And then all the missionaries in Cuenca, so me too,  opened up the whole thing singing the primary song I feel my Savior's love, and then we closed it singing I Know That My Redeemer Lives. All in Spanish of course. It was a great night. 

And then Friday night was the farewell of Monica, a girl who has been helping us here. She reports this week to the Lima Central Mission. Bishop asked us 4 missionariess to arrange a special musical number so we sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again. All 4 of us sang the first verse in Spanish, the 2nd verse just us hermanas in English, the 3rd verse just the elders in Spanish, and the 4th verse them in Spanish and us in English at the same time. (there's 4 verses in Spanish.) It was pretty legit. Everyone loved it; Monicas mom even cried. One pro to South America: is they all think I can sing really well :) It's quite funny. And then on Sunday, the abuelita from the Christmas program came to church!! It's actually the abuelita of Monica, and I think with her grandaughter leaving to serve a mission, she has become more receptive. She's never been to church before and her family has been members for 20 plus years. So we shall see if she will let us teach her. I really do hope so. :)

One cool story this week....on Saturday I think it was, we didn't have much time before we had to go to the church to be picked up for lunch (cause its like a 30 min drive into the campo) We randomly felt like we should go stop by this lady's house, someone we had contacted and taught once, but she never progressed. We found her crying, full on sobbing. She couldn't even talk. She finally tells us about some family problems she's been having wither her son and we were able to comfort her. She said she was so grateful for us and felt a lot better after our visit. It was a really cool experience. She also said she was going to go to church, but she never showed up. :( And she wouldn't let us go get her because she said if her husband saw us he wouldn't let her go. This is the 2nd time she said she was going to go to church and then didn't. So maybe it's not the time in her life where she has been prepared to accept the gospel, but regardless, we were able to follow the spirit and help someone in a time of need. 

Just goes to show that Heavenly Father never leaves us solo. We are never alone, and in our times of need, he will give us tender mercies so show his love. For N this day, we were her tender mercy. I challenge all of you to be someone's tender mercy. Be observant of others and help them when it may seem like they need help. Share the gospel always. You never know who has been prepared by the Lord, and if we don't open our mouths to speak, we will never find out. 

So crazy that Christmas is right around the corner. Not gonna lie, that thinking about the piano recital, Fashion Island trip, and Follow The Star traditions makes me wish super bad that I was home enjoying the Christmas season with all of my loved ones. But there is a time and a season for everything, and in this season of my life it is time to be a representative of Christ, and work in his vineyard. I hope you all are remembering the true meaning of Christmas and the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I love you all to pieces....until next week....keep it real.

Christmas-time in Cuenca,

Hermana Harper

Making Empanadas with The Bravo Family

My old ZL, Elder Osorio at the Christmas program

WEARING HIS NAME EVERY DAY REALLY is THE BIGGEST HONOR in the WORLD

Hola Querido Familia!

6 months babyy!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY DEAREST!!!!

Well today my companion and I were stuck in the house half the day because we were locked in from the inside!! The hermanas we share an apartment with had already left with the keys and the old people that live on the floor below us must have left after the hermanas and they locked it from the inside....which is super dumb... They are always so paranoid! But luckily they came back, we got out, and we actually did something fun on Pday! We got permission to go to centro and did a little bit of shopping and took some cool pics with some cool buildings that I shall send your way.

Well this week was a week as normal as ever in the mission field. Nothing super exciting happened that I can remember...just talking to people in the street and visiting the Bravo family and menos activos, etc. We did find one guy who is an old investigator who seems really promising. His name is Fernando and he likes studying and reading the Book of Mormon...the only problem is he doesn't feel the need to go to church....so we will see if we can get him there and if he can progress or not. But other than that, we don't really have anyone else in our program...which is really bad cause after this week, the Bravo boys will have been baptized and we will officially have 0 fechas. Which is basically just not allowed in the mish Guayaquil Sur. You get macheted daily by the leaders. But idk, even though our program is baja, I don't feel like bad or anything....I feel like I'm doing my best to teach others about the gospel and ya, maybe we've only had 2 progressing investigators since we got here, but at least they are people who actually have questions and who are actually learning and finding things out for themselves. 

Seriously, the Bravo family is so awesome. Especially the mom, Alexandra. She reads and studies all by herself and asks us questions about what she has read and half the time ends up answering her own questions! Sometimes I feel like she's teaching us! haha. I know if she was married she would be getting baptized this week with her sons....and we totally can get her married but her husband not being here is a bit of a problem. But he comes home onv the 18th and then we are gonna work really hard with him to get them both married and baptized. :) 

So we started free English classes this week on Saturday....an idea that we've been super stoked on, thinking that it would help us find tons of new people to teach.  I think we gave invitations to about everyone in Cuenca throughout the week.....and only one person showed up to the class....even worse, that one person was an investigator of the Elders that they had invited....lolzz. haha. But that's ok, it was the first week. It also started to rain really hard right at the time class was set to start so I think more people will show up these coming weeks....at least I hope so. 

Don't have much time this week cause of the being trapped ordeal, but man it looks like you guys had a fun week at home what with mom's bday and what not. Shopping at The Lab, Howie Day, etc etc. Not gonna lie, superrrrr jelllyyyy. Especially of the Urban sale and Buffalo Exchange. !"·$%& Things i just can't think about.....the thrifter and deal-finder in me is dying.....it stinkss having my only creative output cut off for 18 months but what are you gonna do....I hope you guys picked up some good finds for me to rock despues la mishhh. gracias ;) hehe. Also jeally about the Christmas tree shopping...looks like fun. You better be taking care of my Neff beanie Iz. haha. And Grandma, your little birthday shindig for my mom looked so cute!!! It also sounded really yummy from what my mom told me. 

Oh Mom, I got your letters with the pictures and from FHE this week! Muchisimooooo gracias. I love all the photos and shared them with my zone when I received them in our meeting. Seriously the best. Oh hey, almost forgot, completed 6 MONTHS on the 5th!! only 12 more to go ;) Seems like a lot left but the past 6 have flown by so I know the next 6 will too, and then last 6 after that. I gotta take advantage of the short amount of time that I have and help as many people as I can come unto Christ while I am a representative of him. Wearing His name every day really is the biggest honor in the world. Im here doing my best to do and say the things to the people as if He were here doing and saying them himself. Talk about cool. Another big honor is wearing my family name, Harper, everyday, as I'm here representing them as well. I love my family so incredibly much and would be so lost without them. Maybe I'll just never get married so I don't have to change my last name ;) hehe. Well gotta go, but next week should come up fast. LOVE YOU ALL SO DEARLY!!!

Caged in Cuenca (well at least for 3 hours),

Hermana Abbigail Hanna  Harper

The Bishop's little girl Ada is so cussing adorable....we may just be best friends. haha

The bishop and his family who we ate lunch with on Sunday.

WE FOUND A SPOT TO PRAY & STARTED WALKING AGAIN SINGING ARMY OF HELAMAN

Gorgeous view of part of my sector!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Glad it sounds like you guys all had fun in Arizona. Totes wish I could have been there, but ohs wells. Our Thanksgiving here basically went unnoticed. But luckily our Hermana leader, Hna Adams, came and visited us and brought us each a little turkey-hand card and we read some cool scriptures and took pictures and stuff. It was cute. There are 8 hermanas in our zone right now and 7 of them are gringas. lolz. Other than that, Hna Clark and I just celebrated at night by drinking hot chocolate and eating bread, which we do like almost every night anyways. haha. But I glued the card from Hna Adams in my journal and then wrote around it things that I am grateful for. I'll send a pic of that journal entry :) Welp that was Thanksgiving. Let's see what else happened this week....

Well first of all, let me tell you a little bit more about the Bravo Family. They are so awesome. But unfortunately, the oldest brother is in the military and left to report last Monday, so we haven't been able to see him and I don't think we'll be able to teach him either cause they don't know when he'll be back....AND the dad has this horrible job where he works far away for 22 days and then is only home for 7 days before he leaves to work another 22....He left last Monday and won't be back til Dec 18th....We are gonna try and teach him when he returns of course but it's gonna be hard cause we will only have 7 days! The mom we still teach with the 2 other boys and they are all learning and progressing a lot! Hernan and Alexander have baptismal dates for the 14th. They are super awesome and already seem like members when at church. The mom, Alexander, studies the Book of Mormon and the folletos a lot between visits but she can't progress until she gets married and she can't get married to her husband because he's not here, obvi....so it's really hard. But I have faith that something will be worked out so the whole family can be baptized...the parents may not be able to til later, but I know the Lord will provide a way. :) 

Other than them we still don't really have other investigators. We've had a lot of good lessons with individual people but then they don't want to go to church so there's not much we can do with them. On Sunday however, the ward put in a good effort to increase their participation in the missionary work. The bishop announced new callings and started naming off families to stand up until everyone in the congregation was standing....everyone was really confused and then he told them all that they have been called to be member missionaries in the barrio de Monay, etc etc. It was really sweet. They even made mock call letters to pass out to everyone. Now we just gotta wait and see if it works! 

It's just really hard since our sector is so spread out and there are many members houses that we can't even get to unless they take us there themselves in a car. But the bishop drove us around to different places after church and now we know where a lot more people live and I think that will help us with the work this week. It's just really hard to find people contacting in Cuenca since the people here are even more traditional and Catholic than in other areas. 

The other day we had an interesting experience...a jehovahs witness lady approached us to talk....and she was American. It was so weird talking about the gospel in English. She was nice enough but both Hna Clark and I just felt yucky after talking to her. She is just so confused.  So afterwards we found a spot to pray and I said a prayer in English and we just felt the spirit so strong and started walking again singing Army of Helaman. 

I'm just so glad and incredibly grateful that we have the truth in our lives, having no doubts that this is the restored church of Christ and just so stoked to share it with others. So even though it started out a weird unsettling experience, it ended up being a really good testimony strengthener. Welp, I think that's all I got for you all today. Hopefully I'll have some more exciting stuff next week as the work in Monay continues to progress....love you all and Happy December!! (don't worry mom, I know your birthday is Saturday!! ;) and yes, I started the advent calendar picture thing. You are seriously the best. Love you so much!!!)

Caridad (charity) en Cuenca,

Hermana Harper

pps- pray for my skin cause it's getting so bad I'm worried it might affect my mission. I had to go to a dermatologist and everything but they don't know much here. but don't worry. k thanks!

Me and Hermana Adams

The girls in my zone

Our Thanksgiving ¨feast¨ in the apt later that night. hehe

We taught the Bravo Family on Thanksgiving too